During the 1956-57 school year, Oregon school districts spent an average of $356 per student -- almost 40 percent more than the national median of $256 per student.

Western states, including California, Wyoming and Nevada, predominated among top-spenders, while Southern states were the low spenders. Arkansas spent least of all, $154 per student.

Back then, the bureau reported, Oregon had 340,000 students attending school in 726 school districts. Fast forward to today, and Oregon has about 550,000 students in 197 school districts -- and spends well below the national average.

The whole file is too big for me to upload here. But I dug through to page 139 of the 55-year-old report can see that Portland Public Schools spent $30 million that year to educate 67,500 students -- or about $450 a student, nearly twice the national rate.